Epistaxis, i.e., nose bleeding, while quite common and generally experienced by everyone at one time or another is at best an inconvenient and often disturbing experience. Even though considerable advances have been achieved in the treatment of a wide variety of disorders, the time honored methods for controlling anterior nose bleeding remains relatively unimproved. Simply tilting the head back, using cold compresses, squeezing the anterior part of the nose, i.e., the septum, and finally packing the nasal cavity are employed as standard epistaxis inhibiting techniques. The drawbacks to these techniques are personally known to almost everyone and in particular the discomfort of squeezing the nose with the resultant need for breathing through the mouth. In the case of packing, there is a need for special instruments and professional expertise when both packing and unpacking the nasal cavity.
Nose bleeds can occur for a wide variety of reasons including rheumatic fever, infectious mononucleosis, sickle cell anemia, systemic haemorrhagic disorders and hypertension (in adults), hemagiomas, hereditary telangiectasis and angiofibromas. The most common cause of expistaxis in children arise from excessive drying, which can be traumatized by such activities as nose picking. The most common location for such varicosities is on the nasal septum above the nasal floor and approximately 0.5 cm inside the nose. This is characterized as Kiesselbauch's area and is the anastomotic site for a number of arterioles. Traumatizing a varicosity in this area sufficiently to produce epistaxis is commonly referred to as an anterior nose bleed.